J.T. from City Girls has Drake to thank for her newfound fame as well as her BET Awards appearance. The Miami rapper gained clout from her feature on Drake's "In My Feelings." This fact played an instrumental part in her jail check-in being pushed back. It is reported that J.T., whose real name is Jatavia Johnson, brought herself to a prison in Florida on June 29th to begin her sentence. The artist was sentenced to serving 24 months for charges relating to felony identity theft.
The female MC was convicted for using three different peoples credit cards, racking up over $1000 in charges between September 2016 and April 2017. She could have faced 10 years in prison, but a plea deal reduced the time to 2 years. A week before she was meant to start her sentence, a motion was filed to push back the start date. Her lawyer asked for the judge to allow a later date of surrender to allow her to participate in “the once in a lifetime opportunity that the Defendant had in front of her.”
“Since the sentencing, the Defendant and her two-girl music group has experienced a meteoric rise in stardom […] The Defendant now has over 3 million views on YouTube and they have over one million streams across various platforms. The Defendant is a star.”
The motion requested a month-long delay. This is when Drake's name comes into play.
“This is due to a recent cosign from Drake (other noticeable cosigns include Migos, DJ Khaled, Cardi B, Rick Ross and Trina). It will take three weeks to do the work that needs to be done and then the Defendant can surrender as her first album and its promotion will be done. She can do her time knowing that upon her release her group will be ready to start their second album and tour.”
The 30-day extension was denied, but enough time was allotted to allow J.T. make her BET Awards appearance. The artist is set for release in March 2020.